Bergr Sokkason was an Icelandic monk, abbot and scholar, who flourished in the earlier fourteenth century. In 1316 he became a monk of the monastery of
Þingeyri
Þingeyri (, regionally also ) is a settlement in the municipality of Ísafjarðarbær, Iceland.
It is located on the coast of Dýrafjörður fjord in the mountainous peninsula Westfjords (in Icelandic written Vestfirðir). On 1 January 2019, it ...
before moving to the monastery of
Munkaþverá, where he became prior in 1322 and abbot from 1325–34 and again from 1345, apparently to 1350. It is not known when Bergr died: the last known mention of him is in 1345.
Bergr was a close friend of
Lárentíus Kálfsson
Lárentíus Kálfsson (medieval Icelandic Laurentius Kálfsson; 10 August 1267 – 16 April 1331) was bishop of the northern Icelandic diocese of Hólar 1324–31.
Laurentius studied first with Þórarinn kaggi, his maternal uncle, in Vellir in ...
and
Einarr Hafliðason and seems to have been one of the most prolific identifiable authors of medieval Iceland, making him a central figure in the
North Icelandic Benedictine School
The North Icelandic Benedictine School (''Norðlenski Benediktskólinn'') is a fourteenth-century Icelandic literary movement, the lives, activities, and relationships of whose members are attested particularly by ''Laurentius Saga, Laurentius sag ...
of saga-writing: he wrote ''
Nikulás saga erkibiskups'' and ''
Mikaels saga höfuðengils''; possibly ''
Guðmundar saga C'', the L-version of ''
Jóns saga helga'', and ''
Jóns þáttr Halldórssonar''; and maybe even a number of romances: ''
Kirjalax saga'', ''
Rémundar saga keisarasonar'', and ''
Dínus saga drambláta
''Dínus saga drambláta'' (also known, ''inter alia'', as ''Saga af Dínus ok Philomena'') is an Old Norse chivalric saga, assumed to have been composed first in the fourteenth century. The saga is noted for its scholarly, highbrow style.
Summa ...
''. It has recently been argued that he also composed the B-version of ''
Þorláks saga helga'', preserved in the mid-fifteenth-century manuscript AM 382 4to.
[Susanne Miriam Fahn and Gottskálk Jensson]
"The Forgotten Poem: A Latin Panegyric for Saint Þorlákr in AM 382 4to"
''Gripla'', 21 (2010), 19-60 (pp. 52-54).
See also
*
List of Icelandic writers
Iceland has a rich literary history, which has carried on into the modern period.
Some of the best known examples of Icelandic literature are the Sagas of Icelanders. These are prose narratives based on historical events that took place in Icel ...
*
Icelandic literature
Icelandic literature refers to literature written in Iceland or by Icelandic people. It is best known for the sagas written in medieval times, starting in the 13th century. As Icelandic and Old Norse are almost the same, and because Icelandic wor ...
References
Sources
* Sigurdson, Erika Ruth
"The Church in Fourteenth-Century Iceland: Ecclesiastical Administration, Literacy, and the Formation of an Elite Clerical Identity"(unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Leeds, 2011), pp. 55–56, 60-61, 63
*
Finnur Jónsson
Finnur Jónsson (May 29, 1858 – March 30, 1934) was an Icelandic-Danish philologist and Professor of Nordic Philology at the University of Copenhagen. He made extensive contributions to the study of Old Norse literature.
Finnur Jónsson was b ...
: ''Historia Ecclesiastica Islandiæ IV'', bls. 44-45, Havniæ MDCCLXXVIII.
* Páll Eggert Ólason: ''Íslenzkar æviskrár I'', bls. 150, Reykjavík 1948.
External links
Bergur Sokkason: ''Mikaels saga engils'', Chapters 4–10at Helgisetur
Bergur Sokkason: ''Mikaels saga engils'', Chapters 12–22at Helgisetur
Bergur Sokkason: ''Mikaels saga engils'', Chapters 23–28at Helgisetur
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Icelandic writers
Icelandic poets
Skalds
14th-century Icelandic people
14th-century Icelandic poets